Nakumatt aims to double market share

December 17, 2014

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By CORRESPONDENT, Nakumatt Holdings Regional Strategy and Operations Director, Thiagarajan Ramamurthy, said the firm will be investing heavily in the New Year to accelerate its growth/CFMNAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 17 – Nakumatt Holdings has announced plans to double its local and regional market share through a number of customer experience enhancing projects.

Currently enjoying less than 25 percent market share of the formal retail space, Nakumatt Holdings will be seeking to retain a bigger slice of the mid to premium segment.

Through the strategy, the retailer will also be seeking to grow its gross revenue to over $1billion (Sh90bn) in the medium term period while growing its network footprint across East Africa.

To attain the ambitious strategy, the firm has already embarked on a store refurbishment programme geared at refreshing its shopping floor ambience to global standards.

The firm will also be undertaking weekly sales offers for basic commodities under a campaign dubbed the Nakumatt Super Savers programme.

Speaking during a handover of two Ford Figo Cars won by the retailer’s shoppers in the ongoing Nakumatt Christmas Bonanza, Nakumatt Holdings Regional Strategy and Operations Director, Thiagarajan Ramamurthy, said the firm will be investing heavily in the New Year to accelerate its growth.

“We are looking ahead for wholesome growth and we will not be deterred by new entrants into the local market as we are firmly focused on revolutionalising the customer experience on a number of fronts,” Ramamurthy said.

“Within this project, the pilot refurbishment works at Nakumatt Village Hypermarket are nearing completion and we shall be rolling out similar store upgrade works at all other branches progressively from next year.”

This festive season, Nakumatt, he confirmed is currently enjoying a steady business recovery which is likely to translate to a 30pc growth through the period.

During the prize handover session, Nakumatt shoppers, Jaston Makamu and Ebrahimji Hamza, received the keys to their brand new Ford Figo cars following their recent participation in the Nakumatt Christmas Bonanza Customer reward programme. Participating Nakumatt customers still stand a chance to win four more vehicles among other consolation prizes in the ongoing reward scheme.

The retailer is also enjoying high volume purchase of gift vouchers by local corporates, individuals and non-governmental organizations’ for their festive season reward schemes, a development that is also expected to fuel Nakumatt’s growth during the festive season running through to late January 2015.

Just a week ago, Nakumatt Holdings Managing Director Atul Shah confirmed that: “At Nakumatt, we are anticipating positive growth of up to 30pc beginning November to Late January next year as we are witnessing a steady footfall growth across our branch network.”

He added that: “Since mid-April, we have noticed a footfall recovery particularly in the major shopping malls which had earlier dropped to worrisome levels.”

Globally, the National Retail Federation in its Gift Card Spending Survey, is forecasting that the average person buying gift cards this Christmas season, will spend $172.74, up from $163.16 last year.

Total spending is expected to reach $31.74 billion. In the survey conducted last month, NRF established that 62 percent of shoppers said they would like to receive a gift card, making gift cards the most requested gift item eight years in a row.